Rand School of Social Science
| Successor | Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1906 |
| Extinction | 1935 |
| Headquarters |
People's House, |
| Affiliations |
Socialist Party of America, |
People's House,
Socialist Party of America,
Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union,
The Rand School of Social Science was formed in 1906 in New York City by adherents of the Socialist Party of America. The school aimed to provide a broad education to workers, imparting a politicizing class-consciousness, and additionally served as a research bureau, a publisher, and the operator of a summer camp for socialist and trade union activists.
The school changed its name to the "Tamiment Institute and Library" in 1935 and it was closely linked to the Social Democratic Federation after the 1936 split of the Socialist Party. Its collection became a key component of today's Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives at New York University in 1963.
The Rand School of Social Science had no connection to the RAND Corporation, a non-profit global-policy think tank.
The idea of establishing new schools for the promotion of socialist ideas in the United States emerged at the end of the 19th Century, when a group of Christian socialists organized as the Social Reform Union established the College of Social Science — a correspondence school — in the city of Boston in 1899. Another similarly short-lived institution called the "Karl Marx School" was established in that same city at around that same time. Neither managed to leave much of a mark upon the historical record.
A more successful effort at worker education was made in England with the establishment of Ruskin College in Oxford, England, also in 1899. Three Americans were instrumental in the formation of this entity, Mr. and Mrs. Walter Vrooman and Charles A. Beard, the latter a young graduate student at Oxford University. The trio soon returned to America, where they continued their interest and activity in adult worker education, although none of the three were directly responsible for the establishment of the Rand School.
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